- Hy Turkin
Hy Turkin (born
May 9 ,1915 inNew York, New York , diedJune 24 ,1955 ) was a sportswriter best known for co-editing the first baseball encyclopedia.Turkin was born in
New York , one of six children. He joined the staff of the "New York Daily News " after graduating fromCooper Union in 1936 with a degree inelectrical engineering . Turkin covered baseball, basketball, and track for the paper.Baseball Encyclopedia
A chance meeting with baseball researcher
S.C. Thompson in 1944 led the two to colloborate on what would become the first true baseball encyclopedia. Published byA.S. Barnes in 1951, the book contained a complete listing of every man who had playedMajor League Baseball , along with the years they had played, the teams they had played for, and some basic statistics. It was a remarkable contribution to the field of baseball history.The book earned the endorsement of Commissioner A.B. "Happy" Chandler, and nine revised editions were published after Turkin's death (the last in 1979).
Other
Turkin was one of the founders of the
National Foundation for Muscular Dystrophy . He was married to the former Florence Kerr, and the couple had a daughter named Margery.Death
Turkin died at the age of 40, following a six-month battle with
liver disease. "New York Times " writer Arthur Daley described him as "a bustling little dynamo with an inquisitive turn of mind."Legacy
Following Turkin's death, the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association named a new annual award after him. The Hy Turkin Memorial Award is given annually to professional basketball's rookie of the year.
References
*Schwarz, Alan (2004), "The Numbers Game". ISBN 0-312-32222-4.
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